The national exams of secondary education start today with the Portuguese exam of the 12th year, and the teachers’ unions have called a strike to the final assessments of students, subject to minimum services by decision of the arbitration court.
Besides the Portuguese 12th grade national exam, the Mandarin and Italian 11th grade exams and the Portuguese as a Non-Mother Tongue final exam for 9th grade students are also scheduled for today.
At the end of May, the union platform that brings together nine teacher representative structures, including the two federations – FNE and Fenprof – announced the scheduling of strikes for national exams and final evaluations, and on the same day the Ministry of Education reacted to the announcement with another: the request for minimum services.
The strike is part of the continuity of the teachers’ struggle for the recovery of the service time still frozen, which is now six years, six months and 23 days.
On June 7, the Ministry of Education announced that the arbitral tribunal had ordered minimum services for the 9th, 11th and 12th grade final assessments and the 9th grade math final exam on June 16.
In a written reply sent to Lusa, a source at the Ministry of Education explains that the notification from the Directorate General of Public Administration and Employment (DGAEP) indicates that the fixing of minimum services covers the final assessments of the 9th, 11th and 12th grades of schooling, as well as “all procedures leading to such assessments,” and the final test of the 9th grade of mathematics.
Meanwhile the unions have announced an appeal to the Court of Appeal to challenge the legality of the minimum services decreed.
